The best laid plans & the disadvantage of berry bushes

Justin's 'cruising' now so I temporaily switched out our lucite cocktail table in the living room with an ikea slipcovered ottoman from our family room. It'll stay in here until he can walk & I don't have to worry about him breaking his face on the table. The look is a bit cuter than I like for my living room, but since it's temporary, I can deal. Whatever's there always seems to be toy central and here's a quick pic now:

{I tried to get Justin in the picture but he got away}

The beauty of slipcovers is that you can wash them whenever you need to. The not-so-beautiful part is that with my little guys and Justin's tendency to spit-up, that'll be fairly often.

Well, as expected, we had our first major spit-up on the ottoman so I took off the top slipcover & washed it. Everything came out fine and I laid it out to dry in the backyard. That evening, as Dave & I were having a drink before dinner, I looked out the window and saw this:

Seriously??? Dave went down for confirmation as I took these pics from the living room... (ever-helpful am I ;)

{Yup. Berry bird poop. On the ottoman.}

We will now be attempting the "you can always bleach white slipcovers" thing.

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comments:

Lauren, I feel your pain! I have white slipcovers in my family room, and with 2 large dogs I have a cheap target slipcover on MY slipcover!!! That way I can take it off when I have people over and I don't have to wash the sucker!

Please forgive me Lauren but I'm so laughing, I can since I've had the same thing happen a few times. All kinds of berry bushes out back behind where I hang the laundry out during the summers and you know the rest. At least it washes!

I enjoy cruising through your blog. Reading about your precious little one brings back fond memeories of my own. I recently removed a small (blood) stain from a pillowcovering by soaking it in hair shampoo for 24 hours. To my amazement, it was gone when I opened it up the next day. Washed it and it was just fine. Anyway, got the info. on Tide.com. Can you believe they suggested hairshampoo and not tide? Keep the humor, love it.

Seriously - the best laid plans always have a way of keeping us on our toes. My favorite holiday was when all the lights were up and my husband went to cut the tag off the top of the tree and cut the lights.In the midst of things, it is good to laugh about these things. I had an ottoman like that in my boys room when they were small, it sure took a beatin.pve

HI there. Im sure its too late. But for future "berry poop disasters" I have found a really great product. its called Upholstery Cleaner by Zep. Its a commercial product that my custom upholstery person gave me...You spray and then let it sit and then blot. The stain usually lifts right up onto the cloth.Good luck!Em

oh no! I've got lots of white slipcovers and have had everything from spaghetti sauce to Chinese sweet & sour sauce on them. Soaking in cold water with shampoo really works as does Oxyclean or bleach. I wash everything in cold though so it doesn't set in the stain. I dry mine on low in the dryer and put them back on the furniture when they are ever so slightly still damp. That way they don't shrink in the dryer and they are easy to get back on. good luck! :)

OMG, Lauren. I'm sorry, but that is pee your pants funny because isn't that just the way things go? When you have kids, it seems like everything you do needs to JUST BE DONE. Once! I'm finding more and more that balancing work, kids and family, and blogging doesn't leave time for re-do's very much. That's why laughter is so essential :). Sorry for the re-wash! I love'd your "Seriously?"

Funny story. I experienced the berry bird drops on my outdoor furniture (that I had just recovered) within an hour of putting the new cushions on.

I've found the bleach pen the most valuable tool for white slipcovers. I found that washing the several times a week got old fast, so now I do the spots with the pen and full washings every couple weeks.

I second the vote for OxiClean!!! I wear a lot of white pants (with 4 kids, no less) and always find that a few hours soaking in OxiClean gets pretty much anything out. I even soaked out a red wine stain from white cropped pants once. By the way, don't hold a sixteen month old boy while wearing white pants and drinking Cabernet ;)

As a decorator & a textile designer, this is my place to muse... perfection doesn't interest me; Reality and charm do. Fresh floppy flowers from the garden over long-stemmed roses any day, I love it when things are slightly off and tell a story.